Smoking in Austria fell from 24.2 percent of the population to 16.3 percent over 12 years. Over the same period, use of alternative nicotine products including vapes rose from zero to 17.2 percent, and the share of people using more than one nicotine product climbed from 5.2 percent to 18.3 percent.
Those three numbers, taken together, are the point. Researchers presenting three large studies from Austria and Ireland in Barcelona argued that the decline in smoking has concealed a broader nicotine problem rather than reflecting one, and that the age at which people start has fallen sharply.
